When Romain Gaillard, founder and CEO of the retailer, saw a blue-to-red visualization created by British scientist Ed Hawkins called Warming Stripes showing yearly increases in average global temperatures from 1850 to 2018 on the cover of The Economist in September, the dire threat of climate change crystallized in his mind. “I was born in 1980, and that’s where it starts to become pinkish and orange. I have two kids. They are 4 and 2. It’s purple red and very dark red in 2015 and 2017, the years they were born. Those are the warmest years ever recorded,” he says. “We all know about global warming, but this was really a big aha moment for me. From then on, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could do.”   The Detox Market landed on a comprehensive effort it’s dubbed Sustainability Starts Now kicking off today that encompasses an initiative named Earth CPR to become carbon negative by planting 500,000 trees this year and 2.5 million by 2025 through nonprofit Eden Reforestation Projects, turning its seven stores into hubs for beauty product recycling in partnership with TerraCycle, evaluating operations to diminish its environmental footprint, assembling a selection of eco-friendly products, and putting up posters in lower Manhattan with the Warming Stripes visualization as well as installations in its locations to spur other people to have Gaillard’s aha moment.   “One thing we’ve been great at as a company is to make people aware of toxicity in personal care. Our next mission is to encourage people to switch to sustainable products. It’s clean beauty times 10,” says Gaillard. “When you have this aha moment, there’s no way back from it. I’m not saying that you will suddenly become like Greta Thunberg and travel by bike everywhere, but, with everything you do, you start to pay attention, and it can have a great impact.”         The Detox Market, which plans to open two locations this year, is certainly paying attention to the materials it relies on in an attempt to eliminate excess. For example, it’s swapped out disposable makeup applicators in its stores to bamboo versions, and nixed an insert in the packaging of its body care line Detox Mode to reduce potential waste. To incentivize beauty product recycling, The Detox Market is doling out loyalty points to customers who recycle in its shops. The products they recycle don’t have to be from brands available at The Detox Market. Credo has a similar recycling program.   Inside stores, The Detox Market is spotlighting an array of eco-oriented products from brands including OrganiCup, Meow Meow Tweet, David’s Natural Toothpaste, Erbaviva, Olas Oral Care, Stasher and Jungle Straws. It’s placing a refill station with Detox Mode hemp soap in stores, and selling a sustainability set for $30 featuring Stasher, Jungle Straws and Baggu. Gaillard says, “We curated beauty products along with products that aren’t beauty-related, but are products you use in your daily routine that we felt are great.” The Detox Market isn’t the first retailer to edit a collection of green products. Net-a-Porter’s Net Sustain assortment of 27 beauty and 45 fashion brands focuses on sustainable merchandise, and Farfetch has launched a sustainable category.         Gaillard estimates The Detox Market will spend roughly 2% of its revenues this year on activities to become carbon negative and closer to 10% on advertising to promote Sustainability Starts Now. “If just a few big companies follow what we are doing, it could make a very interesting change,” says Gaillard. “If we are planting half a million trees, that’s as if Ulta was planting half a billion trees, and Amazon was planting 10 billion trees. For us, it’s a very aggressive number.”   Asked about expected sales results from the Sustainability Starts Now effort, Gaillard responds, “I don’t know what we are going to see. I think we will see a lot of visibility. By visibility, it’s not necessarily for Detox Market, but about this problem to bring that to the center of the discussion. One thing we are good at is being loud about a specific problem. We were very loud about toxicity in personal care—and we still are—but my goal is to make as much noise as we possibly can now about sustainability.”         In their purchasing behavior, Gaillard doesn’t believe customers currently prioritize the eco-friendliness of products. However, he projects they will begin to prioritize it in the near future. “If you look at the Stripes and you fast forward five to 10 years, it’s clear it’s going to be beyond a priority,” he says. “There will be a time when consumers ask for complete transparency on the impact of companies on their communities and on the planet.”   To improve transparency at The Detox Market, the retailer is developing sustainability guidelines for the brands it stocks. “It’s not a black or white type of situation, that’s why it is complex. It would be hard to say, ‘No more plastic,’ and tell all the brands, ‘You have 60 days to remove plastic.’ We are working on what to do. My idea is to really encourage brands to join our movement and to find better solutions,” says Gaillard. “Packaging for small brands is complicated because the MOQs [minimum order requirements] are high. It can be that some small brands work together or work with us to get to higher MOQs, and we together convince packaging companies to work on sustainable solutions.”

Clean beauty retailers are confronting their role in the global climate crisis.   On Wednesday, Detox Market rolled out a 360-degree plan to tackle its impact. Under the name #EarthCPR, Detox Market will plant 2.5 million trees by 2025 through nonprofit organization Eden Reforestation Projects.  In-store and online, Detox launched a collection of sustainable products with a focus on reusable items including face wipes and refillable products like makeup from Kjaer Weis. The company will release in May a set of sustainability standards for its partner brands to follow that will expand on its existing clean beauty requirements. Romain Gaillard, Detox Market founder and CEO, estimates that the new sustainability commitments will cost the equivalent of 2% of the company’s revenue, but declined to provide hardline figures.   “From our stores and offices to shipping warehouses, we’re making simple changes that [will] yield serious results, now and over time,” Gaillard said. “We’re rethinking everything from the way we receive shipments to how we can communicate more information regarding product packaging and formulations.”   Detox Market is just one indie retailer that has begun dedicating resources to sustainability programs. Despite the hot topic of sustainability within the beauty industry — Launchmetrics found the word “sustainable” generated $1.8 million in media impact value for beauty brands in the first six months of 2019 — existing limitations around integrating sustainable practices make it difficult to make a large impact.   “I wish we could [create a sustainable beauty category], but innovation hasn’t come far along enough for us to do that,” said Tara Foley, Follain founder and CEO. “We’ve waved the flag in the clean and sustainable environment, but not enough people are adopting those products yet; we think it’s because people want to buy beauty products mostly because they are fun and effective [not because they are sustainable].”   Follain introduced TerraCycle boxes in all of its six locations in 2015 and has offered refillable product stations for liquid soap since its first store opened in Boston in 2013. Detox Market is also adding TerraCycle to its seven stores, in 2020 and will open another two locations next year. Plus its corporate office and stores are reducing their carbon footprint by using reusable products and conserving water, heat and electricity. Lena Rose, a Chicago-based retailer and spa that opened in 2017, has pledged to become plastic-free by 2025, and will also add a refillable product station in-store in April.   The aforementioned retailers agreed that more significant sustainability initiatives from large retailers like Walmart and Target, and companies like Estée Lauder and L’Oréal would drive the most change. Indie retailers typically stock indie brands, meaning the brands they carry are not producing enough product volume to have a significant impact. Retailers like Detox Market and Follain are also too small to dictate environmentally sustainable supply chain requirements to their brand partners.   Almost all national retailers have sustainability plans in place, including Target and Walmart, but they exist within larger corporate social responsibility programs, meaning they do not impact brand partners or reach customers in a practical way. Some larger retailers, like Sephora, are looking at options on the consumer level. In the third quarter of 2019, Sephora began piloting a program in Colorado and Utah allowing customers to bring back three containers from Sephora-carried brands to receive a 15% discount on Sephora Collection products. Net-a-Porter recently added beauty to its Net Sustain assortment with 27 new and existing beauty brands.   “Customers have propelled clean beauty forward since the beginning,” said Jenny Duranski, founder of Lena Rose. “Now that it [has reached mainstream] and brands see the businesses opportunity in clean and green beauty, you may see retailers and brands recognizing the same opportunities for sustainability.”

As a professional meeting planner and principal on event logistics for the food industry association, I increasingly challenge our team to make sustainability a goal by either donating uneaten food or partnering with facilities to divert waste from landfill. This year, at the 2020 Midwinter Executive Conference, we considered a pilot with our partner Unilever, which will now serve as a case study for 2020 and beyond.  

The Idea

  Did you know that Hellmann’s bottles are now made from 100% recycled plastic? In fact, across their portfolio, 50% of Unilever’s plastic packaging in North America comes from recycled content. Given their passion for sustainability, Unilever was a natural partner with FMI to deliver  a  zero waste Executive Awards Luncheon for the FMI Board of Directors and guests. Initially we thought to plan a meal with no disposable accessories (such as coffee stirrers and signage), but quickly we aimed higher on a collaborative effort that spanned multiple partners.  

The Partners

  It started with buy-in from our conference services team at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge, led by Chef Bryan and his talented team in the kitchen. Then Waste Management Sustainability Services provided us with Comprehensive Zero Waste Program Management that helped guide staff to evaluate the potential for compostable items. Recycled City LLC served as our local Arizona organic composter and TerraCycle’s provided zero-waste event boxes for recycling non-compostable items.  

Behind the Scenes

  Two days prior to the luncheon, the Waste Management team arrived onsite to establish a training system with the chefs, kitchen and banquet staff. All the food prep for the lunch would be monitored and trimmings would be sorted into organic collection bins rather than jettisoned into the trash.   Staff sorted packaging waste into recycling bins, including a bag which was shipped to TerraCycle for hard to recycle materials. After the lunch, plate waste was added to the bins for compost and our partner at Recycled City compost picked it up from the loading dock after the event.  

Lessons Learned

  The results were a giant success! We diverted hundreds of pounds of material by way of recycling, composting, reuse and donation with 0.0 lbs. going to landfill.   We learned a great lesson on how sustainability transcends traditional roles and functions. Many retailers, hotels and restaurants have relationships with food banks or food rescue organizations to assist them with food donations for excess food but going for zero-waste to landfill is a labor of love. I’m especially excited for the spring when I can actually “plant” my event program that was made from wildflower seeds.   Changing the way we approach the well-oiled machines of our businesses with an eye for material recovery and the elimination of waste-to-landfill requires commitment to go the extra mile. Estimating the right amount of food (from the ingredients to the plate) in a hotel environment with multiple concurrent meal events is the Mount Everest of the food-waste-reduction journey. All of us in the food industry have a role to play on this climb, and we’re here to share the stories of the pioneering scouts who are leading the way.   Sustainability, transparency and closing the loop on plastics weren’t just educational topics covered on stage at Midwinter – you could see our commitment during committee meetings, education sessions and our Tech Talks. For instance, in order to walk the talk of sustainability, we worked with Dasani and offered a water dispenser with still or sparkling options in our Refresh lounge.   Our organization looks forward to sharing more best practices and collaboration with partners in the near future. Namely, we’ll be releasing a lesson learned document with our association partners at the Food Waste Reduction Alliance.

As a professional meeting planner and principal on event logistics for the food industry association, I increasingly challenge our team to make sustainability a goal by either donating uneaten food or partnering with facilities to divert waste from landfill. This year, at the 2020 Midwinter Executive Conference, we considered a pilot with our partner Unilever, which will now serve as a case study for 2020 and beyond.  

The Idea

  Did you know that Hellmann’s bottles are now made from 100% recycled plastic? In fact, across their portfolio, 50% of Unilever’s plastic packaging in North America comes from recycled content. Given their passion for sustainability, Unilever was a natural partner with FMI to deliver  a  zero waste Executive Awards Luncheon for the FMI Board of Directors and guests. Initially we thought to plan a meal with no disposable accessories (such as coffee stirrers and signage), but quickly we aimed higher on a collaborative effort that spanned multiple partners.  

The Partners

  It started with buy-in from our conference services team at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge, led by Chef Bryan and his talented team in the kitchen. Then Waste Management Sustainability Services provided us with Comprehensive Zero Waste Program Management that helped guide staff to evaluate the potential for compostable items. Recycled City LLC served as our local Arizona organic composter and TerraCycle’s provided zero-waste event boxes for recycling non-compostable items.  

Behind the Scenes

  Two days prior to the luncheon, the Waste Management team arrived onsite to establish a training system with the chefs, kitchen and banquet staff. All the food prep for the lunch would be monitored and trimmings would be sorted into organic collection bins rather than jettisoned into the trash.   Staff sorted packaging waste into recycling bins, including a bag which was shipped to TerraCycle for hard to recycle materials. After the lunch, plate waste was added to the bins for compost and our partner at Recycled City compost picked it up from the loading dock after the event.  

Lessons Learned

  The results were a giant success! We diverted hundreds of pounds of material by way of recycling, composting, reuse and donation with 0.0 lbs. going to landfill.   We learned a great lesson on how sustainability transcends traditional roles and functions. Many retailers, hotels and restaurants have relationships with food banks or food rescue organizations to assist them with food donations for excess food but going for zero-waste to landfill is a labor of love. I’m especially excited for the spring when I can actually “plant” my event program that was made from wildflower seeds.   Changing the way we approach the well-oiled machines of our businesses with an eye for material recovery and the elimination of waste-to-landfill requires commitment to go the extra mile. Estimating the right amount of food (from the ingredients to the plate) in a hotel environment with multiple concurrent meal events is the Mount Everest of the food-waste-reduction journey. All of us in the food industry have a role to play on this climb, and we’re here to share the stories of the pioneering scouts who are leading the way.   Sustainability, transparency and closing the loop on plastics weren’t just educational topics covered on stage at Midwinter – you could see our commitment during committee meetings, education sessions and our Tech Talks. For instance, in order to walk the talk of sustainability, we worked with Dasani and offered a water dispenser with still or sparkling options in our Refresh lounge.   Our organization looks forward to sharing more best practices and collaboration with partners in the near future. Namely, we’ll be releasing a lesson learned document with our association partners at the Food Waste Reduction Alliance.

As a professional meeting planner and principal on event logistics for the food industry association, I increasingly challenge our team to make sustainability a goal by either donating uneaten food or partnering with facilities to divert waste from landfill. This year, at the 2020 Midwinter Executive Conference, we considered a pilot with our partner Unilever, which will now serve as a case study for 2020 and beyond.  

The Idea

  Did you know that Hellmann’s bottles are now made from 100% recycled plastic? In fact, across their portfolio, 50% of Unilever’s plastic packaging in North America comes from recycled content. Given their passion for sustainability, Unilever was a natural partner with FMI to deliver  a  zero waste Executive Awards Luncheon for the FMI Board of Directors and guests. Initially we thought to plan a meal with no disposable accessories (such as coffee stirrers and signage), but quickly we aimed higher on a collaborative effort that spanned multiple partners.  

The Partners

  It started with buy-in from our conference services team at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge, led by Chef Bryan and his talented team in the kitchen. Then Waste Management Sustainability Services provided us with Comprehensive Zero Waste Program Management that helped guide staff to evaluate the potential for compostable items. Recycled City LLC served as our local Arizona organic composter and TerraCycle’s provided zero-waste event boxes for recycling non-compostable items.  

Behind the Scenes

  Two days prior to the luncheon, the Waste Management team arrived onsite to establish a training system with the chefs, kitchen and banquet staff. All the food prep for the lunch would be monitored and trimmings would be sorted into organic collection bins rather than jettisoned into the trash.   Staff sorted packaging waste into recycling bins, including a bag which was shipped to TerraCycle for hard to recycle materials. After the lunch, plate waste was added to the bins for compost and our partner at Recycled City compost picked it up from the loading dock after the event.  

Lessons Learned

  The results were a giant success! We diverted hundreds of pounds of material by way of recycling, composting, reuse and donation with 0.0 lbs. going to landfill.   We learned a great lesson on how sustainability transcends traditional roles and functions. Many retailers, hotels and restaurants have relationships with food banks or food rescue organizations to assist them with food donations for excess food but going for zero-waste to landfill is a labor of love. I’m especially excited for the spring when I can actually “plant” my event program that was made from wildflower seeds.   Changing the way we approach the well-oiled machines of our businesses with an eye for material recovery and the elimination of waste-to-landfill requires commitment to go the extra mile. Estimating the right amount of food (from the ingredients to the plate) in a hotel environment with multiple concurrent meal events is the Mount Everest of the food-waste-reduction journey. All of us in the food industry have a role to play on this climb, and we’re here to share the stories of the pioneering scouts who are leading the way.   Sustainability, transparency and closing the loop on plastics weren’t just educational topics covered on stage at Midwinter – you could see our commitment during committee meetings, education sessions and our Tech Talks. For instance, in order to walk the talk of sustainability, we worked with Dasani and offered a water dispenser with still or sparkling options in our Refresh lounge.   Our organization looks forward to sharing more best practices and collaboration with partners in the near future. Namely, we’ll be releasing a lesson learned document with our association partners at the Food Waste Reduction Alliance.

A local business teamed up with global waste management company TerraCycle to help tackle the problem of plastic pollution in the beauty industry.   About 8 million tons of plastics enter oceans and marine environments annually — which, according to TerraCycle, is the same as dumping a garbage truck full of plastics into the ocean every minute of every day for a year.   In the beauty industry specifically, around 120 billion units of packaging are made each year, according to TerraCycle.   Plastic pollution has also been shown to have an impact on climate change, due to its contribution to global greenhouse gases.   Across the United States, small businesses are stepping up to combat the issue by better handling their waste.   Salacia Salts, a skin care and home fragrance shop in Savannah, is one of those small businesses.   They initially reached out to TerraCycle after discovering a lack of options in Savannah for recycling beauty products, especially the plastic kind, via curbside recycling or a municipal recycling program.         “I learned about TerraCycle when I was looking at different solutions on how to recycle different types of plastic packaging that was no longer recyclable in Savannah, and I found them as a major organization across the globe that was recycling really hard and difficult things, like cosmetic packages and compacts,” Salacia Salts founder Cari Phelps told WSAV.com Now.   TerraCycle offers several different types of Zero Waste Boxes to help with recycling difficult items, Phelps added.   The box Salacia Salts selected to add to their own store was geared the proper disposal of beauty product packaging.   Items like shampoo bottles, lip balm tubes, concealer sticks and eye shadow cases can be dropped inside.   “If you think about a cosmetic compact, there’s plastic, there’s glass, there’s metal, there’s tin, there’s all these different components, and it’s really hard to recycle in a local facility,” Phelps said.   “This box allows people to drop in a variety of different types of waste, and then they recycle it and turn it into really cool things, like toys or playground equipment,” she added.   The Zero Waste Box program helps another issue facing the beauty industry: “wishful recycling,”or “wish-cycling” for short.   “This phenomenon takes place whenever a well-meaning consumer tosses an item that they are unsure can be recycled—like an empty mascara container—into their curbside recycling bin in the hopes that it will be processed like any typical recyclable,” TerraCycle publicist Shaye DiPasquale told WSAV.com Now.   “In reality, this habit can be extremely counter-intuitive, since it places unnecessary stress on local municipal recycling facilities (MRFs),” DiPasquale said.   TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program offers people an eco-friendly way to discard their beauty waste.   Phelps says they first received their box over the holidays, and so far, they’ve gotten a positive response from customers who have already started to bring in their old beauty products.   “A lot of people say they want to come in because they’ve got things to drop off,” Phelps said.   “And that’s part of it, too, just educating people that there is a place,” she said.   Once the box is filled, Salacia Salts then ships it back to TerraCycle with a prepaid shipping label, and from there, the beauty waste gets properly handled.   With millions of pounds of plastic reportedly going into the oceans every day, Phelps says everyone can make a difference if they reduce, reuse or recycle.   “I think it’s something important for our community,” she said.   “We live on the coast, we love our beautiful marshes and beaches and waterways, and I think if you feel like you can do something really small, even if it’s recycling something once a week or once a month, you feel like you’re doing something for your own community,” she said.

January 30, 2020 - The beauty industry has a plastic packaging problem. Zero Waste Week reports the global industry creates 120 billion units of packaging every year, most of which isn’t conventionally recyclable. Salacia Salts, a high quality collection of skin care and home fragrance products made with natural ingredients, has teamed up with TerraCycle to combat the beauty industry’s massive output of plastic products and packaging waste through the Zero Waste Box program.   “We care deeply about this beautiful planet that we get to call home,” says Salacia Salts CEO, Cari Clark Phelps. “We want to do what we can to restore our land.”   By placing the Beauty Products & Packaging Zero Waste Box inside their studio, Salacia Salts helps customers and Chatham County community members conveniently recycle their beauty empties and reduce their environmental impact. The zero-waste initiative aligns with the brand’s focus on sustainability and the conservation of Earth’s natural resources.   Salacia Salts uses post-consumer recycled packaging whenever possible with the goal of eliminating plastic from the product line. The first product developed for the company was a salt soak packaged in a reclaimed, “upcycled” wine bottle.   Like most plastic packaging, this conventionally unrecyclable beauty waste would have otherwise been landfilled, incinerated, or may have even contributed to the pollution of marine habitats. The collected beauty and skin care packaging will now be sorted, shredded and recycled into a variety of new products such as park benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and recycling bins.   TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams, created the Zero Waste Box program to provide solutions for difficult-to-recycle waste that cannot be recycled through TerraCycle’s brand-sponsored, national recycling programs or via standard municipal recycling.  Salacia Salts hopes to become a well-known spot for locals to recycle empty beauty products in an appropriate manner.   “The foundation of the company was built on my love and passion for sustainability,” says Phelps. “By recycling products appropriately, we are helping to alleviate waste in our water systems which leads to an overall happy and healthier lifestyle.”   More information regarding Salacia Salts can be found by visiting their website, https://salaciasalts.com/. All collected materials from the Zero Waste Box program are sent to TerraCycle for recycling, where they undergo a series of treatments before getting turned into new items. For more information on TerraCycle, please visit www.TerraCycle.com.   TerraCycle offers Zero Waste Boxes for nearly every category of waste. By purchasing Zero Waste Boxes, companies and consumers save trash from landfills and help reach TerraCycle’s goal of creating a waste-free world.

The Detox Market isn’t just talking about sustainability. It’s taking action to become more sustainable as a business and help protect the environment beyond its doors.

When Romain Gaillard, founder and CEO of the retailer, saw a blue-to-red visualization created by British scientist Ed Hawkins called Warming Stripes showing yearly increases in average global temperatures from 1850 to 2018 on the cover of The Economist in September, the dire threat of climate change crystallized in his mind. “I was born in 1980, and that’s where it starts to become pinkish and orange. I have two kids. They are 4 and 2. It’s purple red and very dark red in 2015 and 2017, the years they were born. Those are the warmest years ever recorded,” he says. “We all know about global warming, but this was really a big aha moment for me. From then on, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could do.”   The Detox Market landed on a comprehensive effort it’s dubbed Sustainability Starts Now kicking off today that encompasses an initiative named Earth CPR to become carbon negative by planting 500,000 trees this year and 2.5 million by 2025 through nonprofit Eden Reforestation Projects, turning its seven stores into hubs for beauty product recycling in partnership with TerraCycle, evaluating operations to diminish its environmental footprint, assembling a selection of eco-friendly products, and putting up posters in lower Manhattan with the Warming Stripes visualization as well as installations in its locations to spur other people to have Gaillard’s aha moment.   “One thing we’ve been great at as a company is to make people aware of toxicity in personal care. Our next mission is to encourage people to switch to sustainable products. It’s clean beauty times 10,” says Gaillard. “When you have this aha moment, there’s no way back from it. I’m not saying that you will suddenly become like Greta Thunberg and travel by bike everywhere, but, with everything you do, you start to pay attention, and it can have a great impact.”       The Detox Market, which plans to open two locations this year, is certainly paying attention to the materials it relies on in an attempt to eliminate excess. For example, it’s swapped out disposable makeup applicators in its stores to bamboo versions, and nixed an insert in the packaging of its body care line Detox Mode to reduce potential waste. To incentivize beauty product recycling, The Detox Market is doling out loyalty points to customers who recycle in its shops. The products they recycle don’t have to be from brands available at The Detox Market. Credo has a similar recycling program.   Inside stores, The Detox Market is spotlighting an array of eco-oriented products from brands including OrganiCup, Meow Meow Tweet, David’s Natural Toothpaste, Erbaviva, Olas Oral Care, Stasher and Jungle Straws. It’s placing a refill station with Detox Mode hemp soap in stores, and selling a sustainability set for $30 featuring Stasher, Jungle Straws and Baggu. Gaillard says, “We curated beauty products along with products that aren’t beauty-related, but are products you use in your daily routine that we felt are great.” The Detox Market isn’t the first retailer to edit a collection of green products. Net-a-Porter’s Net Sustain assortment of 27 beauty and 45 fashion brands focuses on sustainable merchandise, and Farfetch has launched a sustainable category.       Gaillard estimates The Detox Market will spend roughly 2% of its revenues this year on activities to become carbon negative and closer to 10% on advertising to promote Sustainability Starts Now. “If just a few big companies follow what we are doing, it could make a very interesting change,” says Gaillard. “If we are planting half a million trees, that’s as if Ulta was planting half a billion trees, and Amazon was planting 10 billion trees. For us, it’s a very aggressive number.”   Asked about expected sales results from the Sustainability Starts Now effort, Gaillard responds, “I don’t know what we are going to see. I think we will see a lot of visibility. By visibility, it’s not necessarily for Detox Market, but about this problem to bring that to the center of the discussion. One thing we are good at is being loud about a specific problem. We were very loud about toxicity in personal care—and we still are—but my goal is to make as much noise as we possibly can now about sustainability.”       In their purchasing behavior, Gaillard doesn’t believe customers currently prioritize the eco-friendliness of products. However, he projects they will begin to prioritize it in the near future. “If you look at the Stripes and you fast forward five to 10 years, it’s clear it’s going to be beyond a priority,” he says. “There will be a time when consumers ask for complete transparency on the impact of companies on their communities and on the planet.”   To improve transparency at The Detox Market, the retailer is developing sustainability guidelines for the brands it stocks. “It’s not a black or white type of situation, that’s why it is complex. It would be hard to say, ‘No more plastic,’ and tell all the brands, ‘You have 60 days to remove plastic.’ We are working on what to do. My idea is to really encourage brands to join our movement and to find better solutions,” says Gaillard. “Packaging for small brands is complicated because the MOQs [minimum order requirements] are high. It can be that some small brands work together or work with us to get to higher MOQs, and we together convince packaging companies to work on sustainable solutions.”

On January 13, a tall green and beige box stamped "Recycle - Oral Care Waste" appeared in the center. People who wish can deposit the tubes and the toothpaste plugs, the toothbrushes, their outer packaging as well as the floss containers.   Do it differently   “The box comes from Terracycle. This private company focuses on recycling products that can be, but are not because of too high costs. As you have to pay a certain amount of money to get the box, the funds collected by Terracycle are devoted to recycling methods different from what is commonly used for, for example, cardboard, aluminum and plastic ”, explained France Beauséjour, owner of the Beauséjour dental health center.   The handles of toothbrushes or nylon bristles, for example, can thus be recycled to create other products. "There are notably reusable containers or other dental care products," said Beauséjour.   First out of conviction   "The idea came to us from an Ontario clinic that we knew and that had started to do," said France Beauséjour. So we got informed. Yes, we have to pay to get the box, but there is a label to return it to Terracycle when it is filled. We do this out of conviction. ”   Moreover, the collection box is not reserved only for customers of the Beauséjour Dental Health Center. "Anyone can come and bring us their used oral care items," said Ms. Beauséjour. It's our way of doing our part for the environment. ”